Broken Bones Pt.3
ISAIAH 50:3-5
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
(Stars require the backdrop of the blackness of the night sky in order to revealed their glory and the mystery of their message – Psalm 19:3. And sackcloth is what was known as common sacking, of what you would store grain in for transport, and in the bible, it was worn during times of mourning or to show humiliation, it would also be used as a material to lie on)
4 ¶ The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: (Or – “that I shall know how to sustain by a word him that is weary.”
A wise word of encouragement at the right time is what God uses to sustain a weary person. In each age, there was a word of truth given by God that sustained the believer for that age.
And so our lives are cast on a backdrop of what often seems to be full of the blackness of troubles and woes etc. But the great Artist of all creation is using this cloth of the blackness of our lives to paint a masterpiece of the mystery of His great redemptive love – and so he sends us a word in season to sustain us during times of weariness.)
he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. (This is a daily growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord)
5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
(As message believers, we have been witnesses of a great spiritual food in due season that has come to us in these last days by a prophetic voice that has shone against a backdrop of the darkness of a Laodicean age, and our ears of understanding have been opened by the indwelling Holy Spirit who is the teacher of the truth of this hour, and we have not been rebellious to the hearing of this truth, nor have we turned back from His voice – this is a very powerful attribute)
PSALM 51:6-8
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. (The journey of life is a great teacher of wisdom – and so against the backdrop of David’s sin that he committed with Bathsheba, we see a great wisdom of truth that comes out of this darkness by what David writes of in the Psalm’s - shining lights of the truth of the character and redemptive love of God shining out like the stars against a black night)
7 ¶ Purge me with hyssop (hyssop is a common weed that represents our common faith in the atoning blood of Christ), and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Broken Bones Pt.3
Last week we read this scripture of what kind David penned in the Psalm’s:
PSALM 103:17
17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;
This rejoicing of the praise of God’s mercy is coming out of a depth of a knowledge of truth of where these “broken bones” exist at this deepest level of David’s heart.
*And so how did David come to know about the depths of these great attributes of God’s nature? It was his own sin that had painted a canvas of blackness over his life so that the light of the mercies of God could be written upon it.
And this is the picture of the entire human race since the fall in Eden with the sin of Adam and Eve – God has been revealing the true character of Himself by writing it on this backdrop of blackness and sackcloth.
*These “bones” of David’s inner parts that were broken by this event of sin in his life were now rejoicing and singing out in the truth of how that God’s mercies endure forever.
PSALM 136:1
1 ¶ O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
For the entire 26 verses of this one chapter, the same declaration is repeated over and over and over again in every single verse – “for his mercy endureth forever”.
**And so David in the Psalms, because he has experienced the mercy of God in his own life, he is now qualified to teach us of the mercies of God of which his broken bones have come to rejoice in.
And so this is the same way of how that God tenderly deals with us in our own lives, because our purpose on earth is to come into an inner knowledge of the truth of the character of the mercy and love of God.
**And so life is a big schoolroom, and God is our great teacher, and He has designed each of our life’s lessons so that before we leave this earth for our eternal home, that we will have come to know His mercy and grace on a personal level – like David, we will come to truly know that “His mercies endure forever.”
**And this is the reason why there is so much that is written about this in the book of Psalms (of the great mercies and grace of God) of which would never have been penned unless David had had his “bones” broken.
PSALM 51:13
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
Opening scripture…
ISAIAH 50:3-4
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
4 ¶ The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
**The events of blackness in our lives is the law of contrast of what it takes to reveal certain aspects of God’s great nature of His divine love and mercy to us personally.
THE.ARK_ JEFF.IN V-26 N-18 SUNDAY_ 55-0522
171 Don't be scared. God's driving the winds. God's driving the ark. He has all things provided. Why, Noah wouldn't have had any victories, wouldn't have been storms and trials. If we're just put through a little safe tunnel to run through, there's no joy. The storms of life, what makes us have the joy. We'd never know what daylight was 'less we had some dark. We'd never know what a hilltop was 'less we had a mountain. We'd never know what good health was 'less you had some sickness. You'd never know how to enjoy salvation 'less you was once a sinner. God's made all things, the law of contrast. He loves you.
WE.WOULD.SEE.JESUS_ DALLAS.TEXAS THURSDAY_ 58-0612
E-16 … when we are brought in the Presence of the Lord Jesus at His coming, there'll be a million angels stand around the earth with bowed heads, listening at the Church sing the songs of redemption, not knowing what we are talking about. They've never been lost. They don't know what it means to be lost. You and I know what it means. They've never been sick. They don't know how to rejoice over healing. They need no healing. If there'd never been any evil, there would've never been no good to... If there'd never been no night, they'd never knowed nothing but day. You see the law of contrast? It must be that way.
SHALOM_ SIERRA.VISTA.AZ V-13 N-5 SUNDAY_ 64-0112
40 My new-year's Message is to the Church elected in Jesus Christ, for 1964. Not--not just the church groups; but the Elect, the Lady, the Lady of--of the Church, Christ's Bride, see, that's who I'm addressing.
41 We're facing here, in our two subjects that we read, the two Scriptures, rather, a very contrast, one to the other. In Isaiah, it says, "Arise, and shine, for the glory of God has come upon you. The Light is here." And then the very next verse, he says, "Gross darkness is upon this people." And then when we are in a mixtury of Light and darkness, and then my address to the Church is "shalom, peace," let's find out what it's all about, see. We are facing this year, with both darkness and Light. We are... the world is in one of the most chaotic times of darkness that it's ever stood in; and yet it's standing in, again, the most blessed Light that it ever did shine in.
JEREMIAH 31:34
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
*God has not only promised to forgive you, but He has also promised to remember your sins no more – just as though you never did it in the first place.
*When people came up in the prayer line under the discernment of Brother Branham’s ministry, many times the Holy Spirit would tell the person that there was nothing against their life, and He wasn’t lying about that, because the blood of Jesus Christ had cleansed each stain in their life so much so that there was not even the memory of it in the mind of God.
*And if we have confessed our sin before God, then this is the reality of how we all stand before Him. We are all completely sinless in His sight.
**Yet the reality for us, of what we all have to contend with as human beings, is that in this life, we don’t have the ability to forget about the mistakes and the sins that we have committed, or the mistakes and the sins of which others have committed against us, and so the problem is that most of us have the tendency to subconsciously carry around with us a level of an ongoing personal feeling of subconscious guilt, even though the bible tells us in Romans 8:1 that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,”.
Because of this memory problem, it makes us to that we can feel a sense of resentment towards others because of the fact the we can remember their faults also.
*And then on top of this problem, the longer we live, the more mistakes we will naturally accumulate, and the more offences that will accumulate of what others will do against us.
*And so there is this natural ongoing buildup of things that you remember in your mind of which (if not checked) can work like a fold back loop that produces more guilt and resentment that can turn into bitterness. And so how do we deal with this problem according to the scriptures?
The answer lays in an attitude of confession – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1st John 1:9
The secret is to acknowledge our faults.
PSALM 51:3
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions (This is the key attitude to keeping our relationship with God continually fresh – by acknowledging our transgressions to God as we walk along the journey of our lives. This attitude also applies to our relationships with our fellow man.
LUKE 18:9-14
9 ¶ And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. (Publican = tax collector – they were detested not only by the Jews, but by other nations also, both on account of their employment and of the harshness, greed, and deception with which they did their job. Zacchaeus was a chief among the publicans – yet Jesus loved him and even went to his house. Can you imagine the God of all creation literally coming you your house to visit with you?)
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. (This Pharisee thought that the backdrop of his life wasn’t as dark as what the publican’s backdrop of life was)
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. (The publican knew that he was a sinner, just like king David really came to know that he was a transgressor also after that he had committed the sin of adultery and murder)
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
*So this ability to acknowledge and to confess our sin is a very powerful thing, and it was this that was what the serpent seed nature that was in Cain lacked.
*Because God was willing to forgive Cain (because that is God’s nature, and the scriptures make that very clear), but there was nothing in Cain that was able to acknowledge his transgression and to ask for forgiveness of what he had done by murdering his brother Abel – and Judas was the same.
**But when David murdered Uriah, and after God had sent him Nathan the prophet, we find him quick to acknowledge his sin.
PSALM 51:3-13
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
(My thought here is that God has promised forgiveness to those who acknowledge their sin, but then for us, our sin is ever before us in this life, because we can always remember it in our minds)
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 ¶ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. (David is referring to how that the sufferings of this life for the mistakes that we make (broken bones), that in the end, it is when those bones have been healed by God’s grace, that is when we are able to truly understand and rejoice in His mercy)
9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation (you can never lose your salvation, but you can lose the joy of your salvation); and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. (If sinners could only once see the real heart and nature of God, they would be converted – and this is what David is trying to teach us)
Look at all these requests that David is asking God in just the first 12 verses of Psalm’s 51 - remember that this is directly after that he had committed the worst two sins of his life.
1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness
2. According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
3. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin
4. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean
5. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow
6. Make me to hear joy and gladness
7. Hide thy face from my sins
8. Blot out all mine iniquities
9. Create in me a clean heart
10. Renew a right spirit within me
11. Cast me not away from thy presence
12. Take not thy holy spirit from me
13. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation
14. And uphold me with thy free spirit
And then after all of that, he says – then “Will I Teach Transgressors Thy Ways”
**David became qualified to teach transgressors the WAYS of God (of His loving kindness and mercies), because he knew that all these attributes of mercy and love and forgiveness were a part of the core character of God.
*And so this “disaster” of sin in David’s life was allowed by God in order to make a way for the manifestation of God’s great attributes to David at an experience level and not just at a theory of the mind level.
And so David doesn’t leave one stone unturned from making a full list of requests of which seems to be very bold under the circumstances – But he is making these requests based on his knowledge of the nature and character of God.
***When David came into the reality of experiencing the mercy of God in his own life, then he would truly become qualified to teach others of the loving and tender mercies of God.
**And so this is what is very important of what we are to learn as young people – of the WAYS of God, of His grace and mercies, and that they are new every morning, and that when we fail, it is not the end, but it is a backdrop of blackness of which God allows in our lives so that He can reveal his saving grace to us at deeper level of truth – so that that truth of His great character can become a revelation on the inside of us.
****As we go through life, if we do not correctly understand God’s great character of His loving kindness and mercies towards us and towards others, then we will tend to carry along with us a level of guilt within ourselves and also a resentment towards others who have sinned against us – and this is because of our memories because we cannot forget like God does. And so because of this, we often find it hard to have the right relationship with ourselves, and to have the right relationship with others, and to have the right relationship with God.
**Because the nature of sin, is that it interrupts fellowship with God and with our fellow man and even with ourselves, and so this is why we must learn to truly forgive ourselves as God does, and also to forgive others as God does.
PSALM 25:4
4 Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.
JEREMIAH 29:10
10 For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
ISAIAH 1:18
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
*If a young child grows up in a home of which he or she feels unloved – or if they are being treated in anger with unfair forms of punishment. Then we know that this can be a very bad thing for that child’s mental development, and of how this can affect the way they think when they get older.
**This negative type of childhood can affect them throughout the remainder of their lives – in other words, it can set them up with wrong concepts that can affect their future thoughts and attitude in a negatively and possibly even in a destructive way.
**And yet this can also be how that many people have been “raised” under various religious Christian ministries that have portray the nature of God to their congregation in that His ways are strictly full of judgment and punishments of which he will one day punish us all by burning us alive in a lake of fire for the rest of eternity – and only then will His wroth be appeased.
**And so with this underlying concept of God, you will never be able to come into the right relationship with God – but this is the age of where we are to come into the right relationship with God, of a marriage relationship of the truth of His truth nature written on our inward parts.
MICAH 7:18-20
18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.
***If we confess our sins, then His mercy and grace is far greater than all our sin..
PSALM 103:10-13
10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
AND.FROM.THAT.TIME_ JEFF.IN THURSDAY_ 59-1231
E-13 …Gracious heavenly Father, it is again with grateful hearts that we approach this new year. And we are--approach Thee, and bring to Thee all of our cares of the past, and ask that You'll put them in the sea of forgetfulness, and remember our sins against us no more. And may not only we check up with our spiritual being, but in our--may we check our fellowship with Thee, and forgive us of all of our sins. And we ask that Your Spirit will deal with us tonight. And if there be any unclean thing about us, Lord, take it as far as the east is from the west, cast it into the sea of forgetfulness, to remember it against us no more, that we might enter into this new year clean, washed by the Blood of the Lamb, and be ready.